FAQ

1. How to output an MAXIMA expression with a sqrt sign?

   $\sqrt{\maxima a \endmaxima x^2+\maxima b \endmaxima y^2}$

   cannot give the correct output.

   CGI program quiz.cgi takes “\maxima ... \endmaxima” and convert the maxima expression “...” inside to “$ ... $”. So you have to write “\mbox{\maxima ... \endmaxima}” as in

   $\sqrt{\mbox{\maxima a * x^2 + b * y^2 \endmaxima}}$

   The similar pair “\maxima* ... \endmaxima*” of commands suppresses the math mode “$ ... $” for the converted expression. The above expression can be alternatively written as follows:

   $\sqrt{\maxima* a \endmaxima* x^2 + \maxima* b \endmaxima* y^2}$

2. How to write a logarithm with an arbitrary base?

   Here is how to do:

   $\log_{\maxima* b \endmaxima*}(\maxima* b^a \endmaxima*)$

3. What quiz.cgi does?

   The CGI script quiz.cgi reads any file to process when the file is indicated in a form of option.

   quiz.cgi?dataset=[file]

4. It is often not necessary or good to randomize the order in which the questions appear in the entire test.

   quiz.cgi shuffles all the problems, but can choose how many problems it picks up as option:

   quiz.cgi?num=[Number of problems]

   We can choose to stop the randomization at all by

   quiz.cgi?num=0

5. Would NOT randomizing the order of the quizzes speed up the generation of the entire test?

   The progress bar at the beginning indicates how long it takes to complete. But the randomization of the quizzes is little to do the overall performance. More than 95% of the processing time is spent on converting the latex file to html via latex2html.

6. What the table at the top of “Recommendation” in “Placement Test” page?

   We embedded a javascript which calculates “Placement level” automatically based on the online test in Part I-V. When a student first opens the browser it appears all “NA” (Not Available). But when the student completes all (or some part) of Part I-V it shows all his/her current scores and his/her level according to the recommendation guidance.

   As we claim in “General Information,” the score data will expire immediately when the student closes the browser. If you use

   quiz.cgi?cookie=[name]

   then a cookie is created and the score will be stored and called by [name]. Examine “thispage.tex” for “Placement Test” page and see how it has been realized.

7. Making it generate faster would be very helpful.

   We are working on that direction. We have a scheme to recycle a set of quizzes already generated before so that it requires no time to wait. However, in order to maintain the spirit of random generator a new quiz is generated whenever no one else is accessing it, and replaces one of old quizzes once a while.

   The default number of quizzes reserved is 30, and it can be changed with the option

   quiz.cgi?max=[number]

   While someone is creating a new quiz thisquiz_lock can be found in order to prohibit everyone else from creating another simultaneously. If this person aborted the process, then the CGI quiz.cgi waits at least 10 minutes to delete this thisquiz_lock. This waiting time can be specified by

   quiz.cgi?maxlock=[minutes]

   If you want two options together, write

   quiz.cgi?max=[number]&maxlock=[minutes]

8. Making font in math displays a little bigger would be very helpful.

   .latex2html-init controls the behavior of latex2html.

   MATH_SCALE_FACTOR = 1.4;

   determines the size of math display. However, it is a very sensitive issue: If you change it, you have to adjust the font size of entire document accordingly using /large, /Large, etc.

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